After four weeks of racing there are still just 60 miles between the top five boats in this thrilling Vendée Globe solo round the world race, with Seb Josse (BT) holding a slender 12.8 mile lead early on Sunday morning. Second placed Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) gained 21 miles on leader Josse overnight.

Dick is back up to second place but, since passing the ice gate, has already completed 45 miles of a south-bound dive, again seeking to improve his position.

"The waves are quite big so if you go too fast you end up plunking in the one in front" Samantha Davies on Roxy

Mike Golding, eighth when he made his move south on Ecover 3, rose to fourth on Sunday morning– the British skipper’s best placing yet on this his third Vendéé Globe race. Golding was seventh on Saturday night.

Four years ago, at this point in the race, Golding was more than 750 miles behind the leaders but went on to finish third. He is now 58 miles behind Josse and 4.4 miles behind fourth placed Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement). When Jourdain made his move to the south he was in fourth place.

At 06:00 GMT five boats had passed the second ice gate, Josse first at about 01:20 GMT, Dick around 02:30 GMT, Yann Eliès (Generali) about 10 minutes later, followed by Veolia Environnment, Gitana Eighty, Ecover 3 and VM Materiaux all within an hour.

Between third placed Jourdain and seventh placed Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) there are just 9.7 miles.

Rankings at 0700 HRS GMT:

1- Seb Josse (BT) 17139.6 miles to finish
2 - Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) at + 12.8 miles
3 -Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) at + 53.6 miles
4 - Mike Golding, GBR, (Ecover 3) at + 58 miles
5- Loïck Peyron, (Gitana Eighty) at + 59.3 miles

Selected International
12- Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) at + 234.9 miles
13- Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 440.9 miles
14- Sam Davies, GBR,(ROXY) at + 496.9 miles
15- Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Cheminées Poujoulat) at + 561.6 miles
16- Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 657.9 miles
18 - Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 744.3 miles
19 - Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 837.6 miles
20- Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) at + 966.7 miles
22- Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 13365.5 miles
24- Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) at + 1704.8 miles
25- Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch) + 1761.4 miles